Open enrollment opponents call for further review of Vitti plan for possible downsides

Some prominent people are warning that a new proposal to open enrollment for all of Duval’s neighborhood schools could lead to school closures, more school segregation and could draw resources from vulnerable schools.

The cautionary voices include School Board members, a state legislative leader, the president of the NAACP’s Jacksonville Branch and a UCLA professor of research who co-directs the Civil Rights Project.

The plan, recently detailed by Superintendent Nikolai Vitti but still under discussion, would let students attend regular public schools outside their neighborhood of residence.

Currently, students are assigned elementary and middle schools based on their location. They get more choice in selecting high schools, and students can apply to attend magnet schools anywhere in the district.

That hasn’t been enough to stop a loss of students from Duval schools, Vitti said, estimating that the district has lost more than $49 million because parents seek alternatives to their neighborhood schools. He was referring to students who go to charter schools or private schools.

“The market is forcing me to be more competitive and to give our principals and staff the tools they need to re-recruit these students to our schools,” he said.

Vitti’s plan would give parents one chance this spring to select a school outside their neighborhood for students to attend next fall. First priority would continue to go to residents, but extra seats would be considered for open enrollment, up to 95 percent of a building’s capacity.

Vitti also suggested opening enrollment again in the fall only to students returning from charter and private schools.

Several School Board members voiced concerns, including whether the measure would draw more students and resources from already vulnerable public schools, mostly in predominantly low-income neighborhoods in north and west Jacksonville.

Those objections were joined by state House Democratic Leader pro tempore Mia Jones, who last week sent a statement saying she is outraged by the proposal.

“This is a massive policy shift that has not been properly vetted by the public and needs further review,” she said. “Parents should be given choice, but we also have an obligation to neighborhoods to fix schools that are under-performing and bring them up to the same standards of quality.”

Vitti has said he’ll ask the board to vote on the measure on April 1, but several board members said they’re unsure when or how they will vote.

Jones asked that the vote be delayed in favor of more community meetings on open enrollment.

Vitti said recently that he is seeking feedback from community members and others about the plan.

For instance, there are three community meetings set for this week at which School Board and district leaders will answer questions about open enrollment.

Originally those community meetings were to discuss budget priorities, but board members have agreed to devote time to open enrollment.

The School Board also will have its regular monthly meeting 6 p.m. April 1 at board headquarters, 1701 Prudential Drive. Part of that will be a public hearing on open enrollment.

The president of the NAACP’s Jacksonville Branch says the board should vote against it.

“This policy will negatively impact our low-income schools, further segregating them economically and academically,” Isaiah Rumlin wrote in a letter to Vitti.

He said many of these schools stand to lose more than just children but the dollars that follow them, endangering the school’s instructional and “safety net” programs.

He predicted school closures in struggling neighborhoods. However, Vitti verbally committed to not consider school closures for the remaining two years of his contract.

Rumlin also predicted that school choice in Duval could lead to greater segregation in Duval’s schools.

“A growing body of school choice research has shown that when school choice policies are not designed to racially or socioeconomically integrate schools, they manage to do the opposite,” he said.

Gary Orfield, a research professor at UCLA who co-directs the Civil Rights Project, agreed with a caveat: If school districts provide busing with open enrollment, that can make a district’s schools more integrated, not less, he said.

Vitti has said Duval can’t afford to provide transportation for open enrollment students.

Rumlin said the School Board should wait at least a year and give other school improvement measures a chance.

But Vitti countered that parents unhappy with their neighborhood schools aren’t waiting a year; many are looking at charter and private schools now.

“I wish I could freeze the exodus of students from our school district to external choice options,” he said, “but I can’t. That’s been occurring over the past 10 to 15 years and has accelerated with the increase in charter schools.”

If You Are Not Willing To Learn, No One Can Help You. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.

This initiative arouses a lot of feelings about the direction that Jacksonville is headed. As a long time and proud resident of Jacksonville, I have witnessed the decline first hand. A lot of decent hard working people, who sacrifice and pay to live in certain neighborhoods so that their kids won’t have to be exposed to the arrested development, i.e thug in training, permanent underclass culture that plagues too many areas of this great city. And yes, thug in training is polemical, but apropos. Too many of these students have no interest in applying themselves or being productive regardless of the best efforts of the adults charged with educating him or her. To compound things further, they’re not going to sit there idle, they’re going to engaging in disruptive and dangerous behavior that impedes and in many cases, renders learning for other students moot. Well rest assured, that those kids won’t move, because they have no interest in learning and their parents have no real control or influence--I witness this on a daily basis. However, I hope that those hard working people will invite kids from disadvantaged, underserved communities who want the chance to be exposed to upward mobility and a progressive, enriching learning environment.

In order to fix a school, you have to fix the community, specifically, the adults in that community. Some of these communities are almost beyond repair--give the decent kids and their parents who are economically stuck in those communities a way out of the poverty trap.

Support the FairTax H.R.25 see www.fairtaxnation.com and www.fairtax.org for more info and sign up for email updates See www.popvox.com to make comments about legislation which is sent directly to your Congressman

4427 points

Ron_Jax80

Monday, March 24, 2014 @ 9:38 pm

The question is what are the differences between Charter and Public Schools? It appears the reason Superintendent Vitti wants to make these changes is to slow the amount of funding going to Charter schools.

After reading all the comments so far, there was no mention of Charter schools.

There is already a lot of extra money spent for busing. The bus companies will welcome all they can get of the 1.7 Billion allocated each year to Duval County Schools.

What are all the differences between Charter ad Public schools? Are Charter schools better and do the students learn more in Charter schools?

Didn't Vitti move supposedly the principals from better performing school to the lower performing schools in Nov and Dec? Was this move for discipline issues or to make the school better academically.

Currently it appears Superintendent Vitti is all over the map. I am not sure who he is listening to. His renaming Forrest process, bought light on how he operates. The way he got away from the media on the Judge Davis discipline issue was another. Not sure where this story is going, but I believe demanding more accountability is needed. Case in point Forrest High.

Are Charter Schools better than Public schools? Are the regulations and testing the same?

It's a great idea.
However, liberals are usually for choice only when it is a choice that they would make. And instead of reinforcing their argument, they just yell louder.
Therefore, it will probably never happen.

I still haven't made up my mind regarding this issue, but I suspect that some opponents have as I have, nothing but fond memories of real "neighborhood" schools, in an era of engaged, active parents, who were in close, frequent contact with our teachers.

For some of us, that was added to by junior-senior high schools, where we went, believe it or not, for six years (grades 7-12). One makes a lot of friends over such a long period, and teachers and principals got to know us quite well. While there may have been problems with that model, and would likely be more so today, in that era, the older students ("upper-classmen and women"), often provided good, maturing examples for younger students.

We all know that times have changed, but we don't have to like that, nor the effects. Many of us too, have become skeptical, even cynical of changes in education over the past quarter-century or so, which have demonstrated little apparent benefit.

“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.”

13370 points

Bull Gator2

Monday, March 24, 2014 @ 5:06 pm

jtaverna, I do not want to appear as if I am carrying Vitti's water for him, but he does know how to lead. The problem lies more with the board, and some of the old line, entrenched politicos. The old saying you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink applies here. He is leading, but those that currently hold the power are not drinking.

I wish he had unilateral power to implement this program. Give it a chance. We know for a fact we are losing students under the current system, so why not give this a try? The board cannot hold Vitti accountable for dropping numbers if they will not support his suggestions.